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How do I arrange or sort the desktop icons in c#?

You know when you right-click the desktop and there's a "Sort by" option that allows you to sort the icons by "Name", "Size", "Item Type", or "Date Modified"? Well, I want to find a way to sort the desktop's icons with a push of a button.
I saw a similar question being asked here on stackoverflow but it's old and the code didn't work for me. The link to the question is: Arranging desktop icons with C# . I'm trying to achieve this in Windows 10.
There was a comment on there that said that the LVM_* and LVA_* values are stored in the commctrl.h file which comes with the SDK. I couldn't find that file for some reason.
Here's what i'm using:
//sort desktop
public const int LVM_ARRANGE = 4118;
public const int LVM_ALIGNLEFT = 1;
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam);
//end of sort desktop
private void organizeBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var DesktopHandle = GetDesktopWindow();
MessageBox.Show(GetDesktopWindow().ToString());
SendMessage(GetDesktopWindow(), LVM_ARRANGE, LVM_ALIGNLEFT, 0);
}
I've been digging for info or some sort of direction about this topic, especially regarding windows 10, but I can't find much. Please help?

In Windows 10, the desktop (not tile world!) is still a SysListView32, but the GetDesktopWindow API call will return the handle of its grandparent, a Progman window - reminiscence of the ancient "Program Manager" of Windows 3.0. Then there is a shim of the SHELLDLL_DefView class, and below that you find buried the listview you're after.
Use the information from this answer to move down from the shell window to the folder view, which you can eventually send the LVM_ARRANGE message.
This is a brittle approach, as it relies on undocumented properties of the operating system, which may change at any time with updates or new versions. It will probably break also when a user uses a slideshow as desktop background, because Windows then rearranges the desktop window stack. Hack to deal with this here.
Another approach which is documented and less likely to break in future versions, with the downside of involving COM and a nightmare from C#, is via the IFolderView of shell automation, two relevant finds here and here.

Language Bar change language in c# .NET

TL;DR: Trying to solve the issue that InputLanguage changes the input layout but does not update the Language Bar display.
I am writing a custom plugin for Trados Studio. Part of this is interfacing with languages both in the app itself and in Word, as in this question: List of all available languages for Windows .NET framework
The last problem I seem to cannot solve is that in a part of the code I am using InputLanguage to set the keyboard input to en-US.
To clarify, there is a limited API, so I have to be really inventive in automating certain aspects. The best workable approach was to use the default shortcuts in the application:
First I change the input language to en-US.
Then I send some keys to the application.
Then I change the input language back to what it was before.
Then I show a form.
Here is the code:
//change input language to English
InputLanguage currentLang = InputLanguage.CurrentInputLanguage;
InputLanguage newLang = InputLanguage.FromCulture(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US"));
if (newLang == null)
{
MessageBox.Show("The Upload Project function requires the En-US keyboard installed.", "Missing keyboard", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation);
return;
}
else
{
InputLanguage.CurrentInputLanguage = newLang;
}
//Save the document
SendKeys.SendWait("^s");
InputLanguage.CurrentInputLanguage = currentLang;
//get url and credentials from a custom input form
string[] psw = UploadData.GetPassword(
Settings.GetValue("Upload", "Uri", "https://www.scntranslations.org/ws/services"),
Vars.wsUsername == null ? Settings.GetValue("Upload", "User", "") : Vars.wsUsername,
Vars.wsPassword == null ? "" : Vars.wsPassword
);
Application.DoEvents();
The manifestation that I have is that the Language Bar changes with a delay to EN but by the time the form shows up it should be HU yet it stays EN.
However if I test it with Debug.WriteLine(InputLanguage.CurrentInputLanguage.LayoutName) then the output is the correct language (in my case "Hungarian").
Even after the form is hidden, the language remains EN, yet the keyboard types in Hungarian and the Debug.WriteLine(InputLanguage.CurrentInputLanguage.LayoutName) returns "Hungarian".
I looked at dozens of pages on SO and the web and I tried everything I could think of including System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000); and Application.DoEvents() and Sendkeys.Flush(), but nothing triggers Windows to update the Language Bar, and I could not find any solution to this issue.
The earlier version of this problem as given in this question: Change keyboard layout from C# code with .NET 4.5.2
I have made this work now fully with the above implementation of the InputLanguage bar this last hick-up.
Can anybody help in:
giving an explanation for this behavior?
suggesting a solution that triggers the update of the Language Bar from C# code?
UPDATE: The code now fully works. I implemented the BlockInput WinAPI.
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "BlockInput")]
[return: System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool BlockInput([System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.Bool)] bool fBlockIt);
And also turning off the Caps Lock using Win API:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern void keybd_event(byte bVk, byte bScan, uint dwFlags, UIntPtr dwExtraInfo);
private void TurnOffCapsLock()
{
if (Control.IsKeyLocked(Keys.CapsLock)) // Checks Capslock is on
{
const int KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY = 0x1;
const int KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = 0x2;
NativeMethods.keybd_event(0x14, 0x45, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY, (UIntPtr)0);
NativeMethods.keybd_event(0x14, 0x45, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY | KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,
(UIntPtr)0);
}
}
So what's left really is getting the Language Bar to correctly show the actual current input language.
I do have the option of sending Alt+Shifts, but I really don't want to do that.

Clearing/Emptying office clipboard using C# Interop

I am working on an application which on the click of a button will clear both the system clipboard and the office clipboard.
I have tried System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.Clear() and the following
static class WinAPI
{
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern bool OpenClipboard(System.IntPtr WinHandle);
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern bool EmptyClipboard();
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern bool CloseClipboard();
public static void ClearClipboard()
{
if (OpenClipboard(System.IntPtr.Zero))
{
EmptyClipboard();
CloseClipboard();
}
}
}
Both of them seem clear only the system clipboard. Is there a way to extend this to office clipboard.

Per this question, the answer appears to be "no, not cleanly":
There has been no VBA support for manipulating the Office clipboard
after Excel 2000. SendKeys is flaky, but it's the only way.
The "SendKeys" referred to is a "solution" where you send the necessary keystrokes or window messages -- assuming one is running, if not, you'll have to start one. There are also other ways to do that, like AutoIt. Unfortunately, all of these solutions are fragile and prone to break between versions of Office, because they rely on internal details of window names and appearances. Before you do this, make sure you're willing to accept the maintenance burden.
A better approach is probably telling whoever wants this application that it can't be done because Microsoft wants clipboard control to remain with the end user -- or, alternatively, that there already is a button for clearing the clipboard, and it exists in Office (Alt, H, FO shows it in my version). That doesn't always work, but when it does it saves you a ton of work.

You could copy a single space to the clipboard, if the other methods are troublesome?

You can try the solution presented here. It's meant for VBA but you can easily convert the code to C#.
Let me know if you need help.

Why is the text from the title of another application window incorrect?

I'm running a small tool (on Windows 7, 32 Bit) that I would like to see what document is open in another application I've tried this, which works for NotePad on Windows.
var myProcess = Process.GetProcessesByName("NotePad");
string title = myProcess[0].MainWindowTitle;
MessageBox.Show(title);
the output is:
"New Text Document - Notepad"
Now, if I try another application it doesn't always give me the correct title but I noticed that most microsoft applications seem to be fine - NotePad, WordPad, EXCEL etc. It's this other software that is an issue. It has a long title but just returns a very simple name.
Here's what I get from my application which has processName = "FooBar"
The actual running window has this up the top:
"FooBar Software Verson 1.2 - [Results]"
and my code gives:
"FooBar"
any ideas?
[EDIT} 2012-11-19
The very crux of this issue is that I was trying to get the name of the open file from the window. It now seems that the software I'm using doesn't display it there. What I've discovered is that a program called "AutoIT3 Window Spy" can get the text I need as the text of the open file is on the window and not only in the title. I downloaded the source (it's part of http://www.autohotkey.com/ which is open source. It seems to rely on many of the suggestions already made but I'm not able to figure it out just yet.) The source code that I"m looking at is c++ and is located here https://github.com/AutoHotkey/AutoHotkey
So I think the solution to my problem may lay elsewhere. This one may go unanswered.

The main window title is what you see when you go in to task manager and look at the Description column, not the window title itself.
It's the title of the process, not the title of a particular window in the process. A given process may have any number of windows open at one time.
If you need the actual window title, you have to hook user32 something like this:
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Security;
namespace Application
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main ( )
{
IntPtr hwnd = UnsafeNativeMethods.FindWindow("Notepad", null);
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(256);
UnsafeNativeMethods.GetWindowText(hwnd, stringBuilder, stringBuilder.Capacity);
Console.WriteLine(stringBuilder.ToString());
}
}
[SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity]
internal static class UnsafeNativeMethods
{
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
internal static extern int GetWindowText ( IntPtr hWnd, [Out] StringBuilder lpString, int nMaxCount );
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
internal static extern IntPtr FindWindow ( string lpClassName, string lpWindowName );
}
}

It's possible that the 'title' you're seeing is some kind of owner-drawn UI element which is overriding the visual representation of the title, while the Windows APIs are likely to ignore that sort of thing.
I'd recommend examining the window with a tool like Spy++ to see if that's the case.
It's also possible that the author of the application decided to override the WM_GETTEXT message and is returning that instead of what's actually in the titlebar, although I'm not 100% sure if GetWindowText() is being called here and whether or not it sends the message explicitly or works some other way.

The developer has stated the following:
"I think the failure may be due to a discontinued property Form.Caption in VB 6.0 that was replaced with a Form.Text in. NET"
Thank you all for your valuable suggestions along the way!

Simulating a keypress AND keyrelease in another application?

I need to interact with an external application running, and send specific keypresses & releases. I've tried to use the SendKeys class, but it does only half of the job, as the keypress is being sent with an immediate keyrelease to the external applications.
I need to be able to simulate a "key hold down" for the external app. I'm now trying to use the SendMessage thing, but for now it won't work at all :( and I don't even get errors.

Ok, case solved. I actually installed VC++ to try the core keybd_event() function, and after it worked I was able to use it wisely in C#.
Here's the code, and surprisingly it's very simple. You'll need to add this using to your code to be able to import dll's: using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
This code will press and hold the '1' button for 3 secs, and then will release for 1 second and repeat the process.
(the code highlight got messed up :/, copy from 'namespace ...' to the last bracket '}')
public class Program
{
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern void keybd_event(byte bVk, byte bScan,
uint dwFlags, UIntPtr dwExtraInfo);
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
while (true)
{
keybd_event((byte)0x31, (byte)0x02, 0, UIntPtr.Zero);
Thread.Sleep(3000);
keybd_event((byte)0x31, (byte)0x82, (uint)0x2, UIntPtr.Zero);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}

have you tried using PostMessage to send WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP ?
Edit
You would use it this way (I am writing in C++, but you can easily use PInvoke and ..NET)
HWND hwnd = FindWindow(NULL,_T("Mywindow"));
PostMessage(hwnd,WM_KEYDOWN,VK_A,0);

You can use the WSH Scripting Shell to do this:
var shell = new WshShellClass();
var missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
shell.SendKeys("MOO!!!", ref missing);
All you need to do is add a COM reference to "Windows Scripting Host Object", version 1.0. Everything is in the namespace IWshRuntimeLibrary.

The official API is SendInput.